Letter: Portman key to health-care reform

Wednesday

Jul 12, 2017 at 5:00 AM

I thank Dispatch.com for Friday's article “Police move protesters, others back outside of Senator Rob Portman’s Downtown office at Huntington Plaza.” All 16 protesters arrested were from out of state: According to a statement from Portman's office, many of the protesters from the Democratic Socialists of America were from New York.

Many people engaged in the protest were also, in fact, from Ohio. This was evident in the statements of observers quoted in The Dispatch article.

The repeal of the Affordable Care Act being protested affects people throughout the entire country. People from out of state are worried about the future of their health care, and they learned through the news that Portman will likely play a decisive role in what the final bill will look like.

They want their voice to be heard.

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Portman’s office statement also noted that many of the people protesting believe in socialism. It is no wonder that socialism would be regarded as a viable response to the failures of our health-care system. The Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, was legislated in response to the failure of laissez-faire capitalism to reduce costs and increase the availability of health care.

A hands-off policy by government along with the protection of private health care and insurance by wealthy lobbyists did not produce competition, reduce costs or provide improved coverage. Rather, U.S. health care was a maddening cycle of increasing costs and shrinking availability before the Affordable Care Act in 2010.

Is it any wonder that people who want to improve our health-care system want to turn away from capitalism?